


The World

by thecaryatid



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Ambiguous Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Drabble, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21634537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecaryatid/pseuds/thecaryatid
Summary: Flayn, after everything.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	The World

Her friends were growing old, after the years Flayn spent away from the world. She visited their lands one by one as she left her isolation, reminiscing, celebrating their rich lives and gathered wisdom and privately mourning their dwindling days. Most are surprised to see her at all, and doubly surprised by her continued youth.

A few are not. Linhardt’s changed in their years apart, grown stubborn, grey, and bent. He’s frail where he used to be delicate, hunched where he used to stand tall. He smiles calm and full of quiet knowing when she drops by his manor unannounced, arriving by pegasus in the middle of the day. 

“So you really were Cethleann,” he says, before he even greets her. “I always hoped you’d reappear, if only to confirm that. You know, our old professor never seems to age either. I expect you’d have a great deal to talk about.”

So perhaps Linhardt hasn’t changed after all. 

They pass an afternoon with tea and memories. Linhardt rambles amiably about magic until he falls asleep in the warm glow of the evening. Flayn lingers on, finishing the tea, and leaves in the cool light of the moon.

Flayn-who-was-Cethleann surveys the world from pegasus back as she flies to Garreg Mach. The clouds are unchanged; they leave dewdrops on the wings of her pegasus that burn silver in the moonlight. The rivers are as they ever were, gilded gold under the touch of dawn. It’s only the people who’ve grown, leaving her behind. 

The walls of Garreg Mach are as imposing as when she first saw them, repaired and reconstructed with the same pale stone they were built from. The figure looking out from the balcony is green-haired and bright-eyed, young as she was decades ago, and barely blinks as a pegasus lands beside her. 

Flayn dismounts. She bows, a little. It seems appropriate. 

“Professor - Byleth - it has been many years, and I’ve had the time to consider a great many things, and I believe I’m ready to return. Does the monastery have need of an accomplished healer?” 

Byleth smiles, wide and true. Warmth spills into dragon-blooded eyes. “Always. Welcome home, Flayn.” 

Flayn stables her pegasus. She lets healing flow from her hands; she braids her hair back behind her ears. She steps into the ebb and flow of humanity. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Written for a tarot zine application, based on the symbolism of the world. 
> 
> As always I'm thecaryatid on tumblr and twitter. Thanks for reading!


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